Brazil Farm Industrial Revolution

BRASILIAA quiet industrial revolution is unfolding in the coffee fields of Brazil where a diminishing supply of seasonal workers is forcing farmers to opt for machines they've long eschewed: mechanical harvesters.

Some hundred years after the promise of a prosperity attracted 2 million immigrants to Brazil's coffee plantations, farm hands are abandoning the taxing job of picking and bagging the world's largest coffee crop for year-round full time work in prospering nearby towns.
Neither Martin nor his competitors in the secretive, niche market were willing to provide specific sales figures. But all concurred it was a growing market whose sales this year had benefited from the surge in coffee prices that began in June 2010 when they shot up from around $1.35 per lb. They have hovered since January in a range of $2.30 to $3.10.
The world is relying on large producers like Brazil to grow more coffee. Supplies of superior grades of beans have run short as demand grows and after bad weather and tree renewal dented Colombia's arabica prestigious produce for two seasons.
Importers have been turning to Brazil for substitutes to Colombian produce, and mechanization may help the country keep those customers by cutting production costs. Colombia's hilly terrain mostly rules out using machines.
Meanwhile, pickers have enjoyed pay hikes as producers compete for a shrinking pool of workers. But the higher pay has not staunched the exodus of farm hands seizing new opportunities in fast-growing nearby towns.
Brazil's southeastern coffee belt is roughly equidistant from several of the country's largest cities, a logistical plus attracting manufacturers of electrical and electronic components and auto parts, among others.
A Brazil-wide construction boom that itself is crying out for labor and paying aggressively to recruit, is also soaking up labor where it can find it.
Such rapid wage hikes mean the outlay of up to $400,000 for a harvester is no longer as daunting to producers fighting a losing battle to hold on to manpower and spending up to half the price of each bag of coffee on the cost of picking it.
There are some drawbacks;Machines cannot work on slopes and some farmers whose trees are bunched together may have to sacrifice some rows so machines can pass through the gaps.